How Technology Can Change Your Business
It cannot be denied that technology has made life easier for millions of people around the world. In terms of communications for example, cellphones and computers have made it easier for us to reach loved ones across the world. Health care also has benefited a lot from advancements in technology. It is now possible to do surgery on an unborn baby or transplant another person’s organs to your body. The same is true in the area of business. Technology has not only made goods and services more available but also more affordable.
Better Customer Interaction and Relationships
Nowadays customers need attention even after the sale is done. They could have more questions, need help using or setting up or just need to complain. With today’s technology it is now possible to stay in touch or foster relationships through technology. You can set up 24/7 customer care through call centers across the world or have their own CRM system.
Social media has also played a great role in fostering relationships between businesses and clients. Social media has been utilized not only as a marketing tool but a communication one as well. Businesses interact with their clients providing information, help and feedback which can be useful for both sides.
Predicting Future Behavior
Technology today can help business by predicting the future behavior of its target market. This is called machine learning which is cloud-based technology. It uses historical data loaded by users such as sales, gender, weather patterns and other customer behavior. Computers will use this data to predict future behavior of customers which can be applied to stocking and inventory, pricing or sales campaigns.
Predicting future behavior of customers can also help businesses decide which campaigns to run or which merchandise to sell during a given season. This helps improve marketing and advertising efforts which could lead to a boost in sales.
Lower Cost of Goods
Lower cost of goods can be attributed to advancements in technology. This is particularly true in the manufacturing sector. There are now jobs that are done through machines instead of people. This partial or total automation of the production department has made manufacturing more efficient and faster which resulted in the lowering of costs of manufacturing some products.
Lowered cost of goods does not necessarily mean inferior in quality. There are many manufacturing centers and factories that maintain the same quality of goods even though they have switched to automated production systems. The lowered cost comes primarily from faster production since machines can operate 24/7 compared to humans.
In fact, automation can result in better quality. There are delicate operations and procedures which can be performed better by computers than humans. For example, Amazon has an army or robots that can move stocked shelves better than humans. The robots take the shelves to human workers where contents are scanned. Workers can now scan 300 items per hour compared to 100 before the robots were in use. This makes Amazon’s operations more efficient and products are moved at a much faster rate.